Ally McBeal Dark Shadows: Witchcraft
by Thor2000
Summary: Occurring several years after her series, Ally McBeal is married to William Collins,son of Barnabas and Angelique Collins, but she gets upset when his old girlfriend, Sabrina Spellman, casts a spell over him.
1. Chapter 1

Lainey and Georgia Collins sat at the table of their Collinsport home eating their chicken salad sandwiches as Ally beamed to them with the love and pride of a mother. Right now, they were the happy angels she loved as they ate their sandwiches and soup. Lainey pulled off her crusts and gave them to her sister while Georgia pulled the carrots out of her soup with her hands and stacked them on the table. Ally grinned ear to ear as the big problems went away and was replaced with the warmth and joy from family moments like this.

"You be good." Ally lifted a tray with soup, sandwiches and crackers for her husband. She didn't have to do this; she wanted to do it. Even risking the chance of being labeled a housewife, the opportunity to show her husband just how much she really loved him continually presented itself and she always took it.

"I will." Georgia answered as Ally backed through the double doors to the back hall. She could hear him typing away at his computer, peck, peck, peck, as he searched for keys. He was busy on another novel: another horror story mixing ghosts and vampires and s.

"Excuse me, Mr. Collins," Ally entered his study and loved being a wife as long as William didn't take her for granted. "But here's your lunch." She slid the tray on a bare corner of his huge oak desk.

"Thanks, honey." He looked up with a twinkle in his eye.

"How's it going?" She stole a cracker from the tray as she read over his shoulder.

"The ghost hunter just discovered something is not quite right with his beautiful hostess..." William was typing stream of consciousness as his characters took over and he described their activities and typed their conversations.

"Oh, good..." Ally stood up straight. She looked at his sandwich as yet untouched. "I forgot your soda." She stood up and started for the kitchen again. As she reached the sliding doors, the typing sounds stopped.

"Do you want regular or root beer?" She turned and noticed he was gone!

"Honey?" Ally realized he had vanished on her from his study without passing by her. She stepped back again and realized he wasn't hiding behind the desk or under it. He couldn't have left the while she was in the door; where did he go!

"William Collins, where are you!" She called out.

That's what he was wondering! He looked at the strange desk in front of him and then around the girl's room where he suddenly found himself. The room was painted in a sky blue covered and filled with all sorts of bric-a-brac, objects of interest and almost pagan décor such as small statues and symbolic pictures. The walls were covered in pictures of people he didn't know and banners from Westbridge High School and Adams College. He gradually became conscious of someone behind him. He turned and looked at a black cat smugly looking at him.

"William Collins!" Sabrina Spellman screamed. "Why did I get William Collins?"

"Maybe because you're still unconsciously in love with him?" The cat talked.

"Sabrina?" William was really spooked. He was spooked beyond all senses  
as he continued looking around. He hadn't seen Sabrina since his mother had tried fixing them up. They had been only friends since then, but as beautiful as she was, it was quite obvious that they had nothing in common. "What's going on here? How'd I get here?... Did that cat just talk?"

"You got a problem with that?" The cat copped an attitude.

"Salem!" Sabrina was obviously distraught. She had never zapped in someone who knew her except for Harvey and he at least knew she was a witch. All she really wanted was a writer to help her on her article for the newspaper. Not an old boyfriend.

"Uh, um, you're..." She thought quickly. "Having a dream. That's right, you're having a dream!"

"Are we going to again?" He asked.

"No!" She screamed a bit flattered that he still dreamed about her, but she was also a bit perturbed on the suggestion. A tiny part of her even liked the idea, but she couldn't do that to Ally. "No, you're, uh, dreaming that we're collaborating on an article about how we shouldn't be knocking down historical monuments."

"Oh..." William was still a bit out of it. "Did that cat talk?"

"Salem?" Sabrina sat in another chair by him. "Uh, well, it's your dream..."

"Put one finger on her rich boy and I'll scratch your eyes out." Salem looked at him with the manner of a cat with a human personality.

"And Ally thinks she has weird dreams..." William picked up a pad and pencil as he remembered old times with Sabrina.


	2. Chapter 2

2

Tiny Georgia and her sister had finished their soup and sandwich and had been sitting around the table waiting for her mother for a long time. She finally sighed and pushed her chair back by herself as she felt she and her sister had been left alone in the house. She took her bowl and spoon and dumped them into the sink and then returned to her sister, took her bowl and  
spoon and dumped them in the sink as well. Holding Lainey's hand, the two beautiful brunette pixies went looking for their mother. They knew they weren't supposed to go in their father's study, but there she was. She was sitting on the floor in a frazzled fit against the wall. Her usual perfect coif of hair was in a state of disarray as if she'd been rubbing it consistently. Her eyes were unnerved and signs of tears appeared on her face as she doubted the world around her. She looked as if she was losing it.

"Mommy," Georgia brushed a curl out of her face. "Can we go play?"

"What?" Ally looked up and wiped a tear from her eye. "Oh, um, uh, yeah." She watched her two babies go play as she continued sitting on the floor. There was no trace of her loving husband in the entire house. He had to be somewhere.

"Okay," Ally sat weeping in the fetal position. "Let's look at this logically. He could not have left the study by getting around me, his car is still here... his duffle bag is upstairs...I sure as heck didn't hallucinate him !" She looked around hysterically as she crawled around his desk. The computer was still on as she stood up hunched over it. She was at wits end as she started to go once more around the house. She barely stepped from the study as the typing started again. She swung around in shock.

"Root beer's just fine." William was typing away.

"What? How? You..." Ally was about to lose it! "Where have you been for the last hour!"

"What?" William looked up as confused as any other person zapped through space by Sabrina and erased of his memory of the missing time. "Right here typing... where have you been looking?"

"No!" Ally marched up to him shaking her finger. "You vanished on me for over an hour! I searched the entire house looking for you and you were no where in sight...and..." She began blubbering as she wondered if her hallucinations were worse than ever. She was so hoping they had gone away forever when she had married and moved to Collinsport.

"Ally..." William stood and held her close to pull her head close to his heart. "Baby... I'm not sure what's going on. Maybe you're…… distracted and working yourself to death. I'm sure there's a logical explanation." He lifted her head up and kissed her. "Honey, just go take a nap. If you rest, I'll take you out for dinner tonight. Just the two of us… alone."

"We haven't done that in a while…" She wiped her tears away as she looked into his big brown eyes.

"Go rest." He kissed her again. She wandered out to the stairs mumbling silently to herself as he sat down at his computer and took a bite from his sandwich. He started typing a little as he noticed the clock on his screen. It **was** an hour later! How did he loose an entire hour? If he had been somewhere else, why did he not recall it? Did something or someone erase his memories?

"That can't be right." He wondered if he missed Daylight Savings or something. He started wondering if he had missed setting it back during the time change then reached for his soup.

"It's cold!" He told himself. He started wondering if he really had lost an hour or if his wife's hallucination was real! Maybe he should be taking a nap with her!


	3. Chapter 3

3

Mike Shelby was a Boston native, but he had done his dues at a TV news service Minneapolis new station for one of the best news producers in the business and alongside one of the most idiotic news anchormen in the business so he knew the best and the worst. Now the editor of the Westbridge Tribune, he was perusing a rather ingenious article submitted by one of his freelance writers.

"Sabrina," He started. "This is great. I didn't even know the Old Peterson House was haunted. That's a great slant for this article."

"Thanks," Sabrina tried to remain humble as she stuck her tongue in her cheek. "I got some of my info from an old boyfriend."

"You both deserve a lot of credit." Mike patted her on the back. "Look, I was going to give Josh the article about the College Field Trip to New Orleans. Would you like to cover it?"

"Me?" Sabrina lit up. "Sure!"

"Great." He looked across. "Josh, we're going to lunch. Sabrina, give me another good effort."

"Right." The cute sorceress grinned as her boyfriend grabbed his coat. Josh leaned in and gave her a kiss.

"I'll be back." He told her.

"Yeah..." Sabrina beamed as she sat at his desk and clicked on his computer. Suddenly and somehow, she knew she was in trouble. She had over-extended herself on a project she shouldn't by any rights be doing.

"How can I top what I did?" She asked herself. "I sure got myself into a pickle. Where am I going to get an angle on this story?" She looked around the Tribune Offices as she seriously considered zapping William back for help again.

"Why do I need all of him?" She checked out the activity again. "I just need to think like him." She pointed her finger at herself.

"To help me on a story,  
"From good old N'Awlins  
"Give me talent  
"Just like William Collins..."

She felt an excited little tickle through her mind and spine as if a sparkle of light had escaped and danced over her memories and tingled over skin and body as though it was an amusement park. Her eyes looked up as her thoughts suddenly started gathering.

"Why didn't I think about that!" She started typing.

In Collinsport, William was back from dinner with Ally and back at his computer. He was typing away when all of a sudden he stopped and looked around. He felt as if a switch had been turned off as he stared blankly again at his screen. Ally came running.

"I thought you had vanished again." She remarked about the typing noise abruptly stopping.

"I just lost my train of thought." He saved his work and stood up. He left everything spread out on his desk as he walked before Ally.

"I thought you were eager to finish that before Halloween?" Ally asked.

"Uhhhh..." William acted disinterested for the first time in his novel. "I'm bored. What's on TV?"

"Oh," Ally looked at him and wondered if something was up. She could never get him to leave the computer before. "Uh, that skinny actress you like is on the Muppet Show right now."

"Oh yeah," William grabbed a soda and bag of popcorn. "I still can't believe FOX cancelled her series, but then they never do have respect for hit shows." He kissed Ally. "Let's watch TV with the girls!"

"What is going on around here?" Ally asked herself.


	4. Chapter 4

4

Ally stood and watched her husband laying on the sofa and watching television as he snacked on chips and popcorn. He sipped his soda a second as on the TV old reruns showed Benny Hill getting in trouble on the beach and in the city. Ally suddenly felt she was married to a new person as she walked up to him and stood in front of the TV. If he really was her husband, he'd be typing at his computer.

"All right," She asked him. "Who are you and what have you done with my husband?"

"Ally, babe," William moved his head to see around her. "Could you bring me another root beer?"

"I would like to know..." Ally started calmly. "Just what is going on around here? I've had a hard time trying to drag you from your computer, but now you're doing nothing but watching television. You didn't even come to bed last night."

"Uhhhhhh..." William made a noise. "I just... Don't feel like typing."

"But writing is your life." All sat down on the ledge of the sofa and brushed her hand on his forehead to see if he was sick. "Are you feeling bad?"

"Could you make me popcorn?" William handed her the bowl with the dried kernels in the bottom. "The air-popped, not the microwave crap."

Ally groaned out loud as she wondered if she should start looking for an alien pod in the house. She felt as if her husband was out of his mind as she heard the front doors of the house behind her. Her mother-in-law, Angelique Bouchard-Collins, hung her coat on the coat rack as she turned and looked in.

"How are my son and daughter-in-law?" She shined toward them.

"Hi mom..." William barely looked up.

"Mrs. Collins." Ally gave her in-law a quick peck on the cheek. "How you doing?"

"Fine." Angelique noticed her son uncharacteristically spread out across the sofa and watching girls in skimpy bikinis dancing around Benny Hill. She looked back to Ally. "Where are the babies?"

"Sara took them to the movies." Ally leaned in close. "Could you talk to your son? He's been watching TV for thirty six hours straight."

"Thirty six hours?" Angelique realized that was not her boy.

"Ally," William didn't look up. "Root beer and popcorn?"

Ally just groaned frustratingly and rolled her eyes to the kitchen. As she did, Angelique turned and moved around the sofa. She beamed happily to her boy and nudged him to look up. He just barely acknowledged her and then looked back to the TV.

"Don't you have something better to do?" She asked.

"Like what?" He answered back.

"Like your writing?" Mother answered back. "You've barely watched more than an hour of TV at one time since you were a little boy. "Writer's block?"

"I don't know."

"William, darling, look at me!" She reached forward and turned his head to her. She gazed into her son's big brown eyes and realized there was something missing. Some spark or aspect of his soul was missing. It was as if he had become another person as she looked into his mind and saw an emptiness that was never there before.

"You've got a spell on you." She murmured.

"A spell?" William scoffed and looked back to the TV. His mother sat up as she heard the air popper in the kitchen popping more popcorn. Angelique knew a lot of spells and she took it personally when one was cast on her children. Realizing she couldn't explain fully what was truly happening without revealing her past, her voice gasped a second and cleared her throat and her foot stepped back a second and headed her for the kitchen in the back of the house.

"Is my husband back yet?" Ally asked as she watched the popcorn.

"He's just..." Angelique picked up the phone on the wall and started punching numbers. "Tired." She claimed as Ally took William his root beer. Placing the phone to her ear, Angelique tried to conceal her voice as best as she could. Somewhere in Connecticut, a phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Samantha?"

"She's not here." The girl answered. "Aunt An, is that you?"

"Tabitha," Angelique spoke directly to Samantha's daughter. She had known her off and on for years and had watched her grow from a beautiful young lady to a most lovely woman with a husband and two children of her own. "How's your mother?"

"Just fine," The lovely lady TV director leaned back. "Mom just went to put flowers on dad's grave. Is there a problem?"

"Well," Angelique turned her back as Ally returned to the kitchen to get William's popcorn. "I've got a question. Did one of your relatives put a spell on my son?"

"On William?" Tabitha remembered when her mother and Angelique tried to fix up the young Collins heir with her little sister, Amanda, but much like Sabrina before her, William was just not meant to marry a real witch.

"I don't think so," Tabitha continued. "But I can get a message out to the atmospheric continuum and find out."

"Please do." Angelique peered back to the living room. William's arm reached up and took the popcorn from Ally as she folded her arms disgustedly. Her husband was turning into a coach potato and she didn't even like it.


	5. Chapter 5

5

Hilda Spellman entered the kitchen and looked at her sister standing and leaning on the counter while reading the paper and drinking coffee. Salem jumped up on the counter next to her as he stood on his hind feet and pulled out the bag of bagels from the cupboard with his teeth.

"Salem," Hilda watched him. "Do you want help with that?"

"I can do it myself." His jaw moved with his words as started fussing with the bag and started wishing he had thumbs. "Help me, please." He changed his mind as a piece of paper popped up from the toaster. Zelda lowered her paper as she took the Wiccan telegram and opened it.

"Oh dear," She replied as she read it quietly. "This is from Tabitha."

"Cousin Samantha's little girl?" Hilda started pouring her coffee as she stuck Salem's bagel in the toaster oven. "What happened? Did someone marry another mortal?"

"No," Zelda removed her glasses. "Angelique got in touch with her. It seems that one of our relatives put a spell in her son."

"You know," Hilda sipped her coffee. "We really ought to visit her again. We haven't seen Angelique since she got married, and William always had a little crush on Sabrina."

"I can't think of anyone who would put a spell on William." Zelda continued as her sister rambled on about nothing as usual. "Who could have done this?"

"Hey, Aunt Zelda, Aunt Hilda," Sabrina arrived home excitedly and removed her coat to hang it up. "Guess what? Mike loved my story on New Orleans so much he's going to give me my own column to write on whatever I feel like! Isn't that great!"

"That's wonderful, sweetheart." Zelda looked up as Hilda stood sipping her coffee.

"Not only that," Sabrina continued. "But on the ride on the bus, I got three ideas for some really great novels to write." She paused as another idea popped into her head. "Make that four! I got to get busy on them. I'm going to be a novelist!"

"Great!" Zelda supported her niece as the energetic blonde rushed up the back stairs for her upstairs bedroom. As Sabrina left, Hilda took the mystical telegram and scanned it over. "I think we found William. He's inside Sabrina."

"Ooo, that's gotta be crowded…" Hilda turned to the black cat scarfing down a toasted bagel and  
washing it down with coffee. "Salem, has Sabrina seen William at all in the last few months?"

"Can't... talk..." Salem mumbled with bagel in his mouth. "Bagel..."

"Let me remind you that we still have yet to get you neutered." Hilda stood over the former warlock in the permanent cat suit.

"Sabrina zapped up William last week to help on the Peterson House article." Salem spilled his guts as bagel bits sprayed from his mouth. "She told me last night that she zapped herself with talent just like his to help her on the New Orleans article!"

"That's it." Zelda turned and marched up the stairs with Hilda behind her. Sabrina's room was at the top landing as they both turned and entered the room. The former teenage witch was typing at full blast at her computer.

"This is going to be the greatest novel ever." She replied as she noticed her aunts out the corner of her eye.

"Sabrina," Zelda took charge as usual. "Did you steal William's writing talent?"

"What?" Sabrina looked up. "No. I just zapped myself talent just like his." She confessed.

"Honey," Zelda came in close. "You can't do that. You can't zap up writing abilities; you have to earn them. When you zapped them up, you took them away from William."

"Angelique and Ally are having conniptions because William's turning into a couch potato." Hilda revealed.

"But, but, but..." Sabrina bemoaned a bit. "Can't I keep just a little bit for my six novels? He'll never miss it."

"All of it." Zelda ordered her. Sabrina groaned a bit and stared at her computer screen as she waved off a gesture from her hand.

"Away talent... I was wondering why I had a sudden appreciation for that Calista Flockhart TV series." She sighed. "And this was going to be such a great book... "

"You're going to have to do it on your own." Zelda scolded her.

"Could have been worse." Hilda mumbled. "She could have zapped herself into a lady lawyer and gone all litigious on us."

In Collinsport, Ally McBeal-Collins returned home with her daughters from shopping. She peeked into the living room with her husband still stuck in the same place as she had left him. She helped her daughters off with their coats, glared over their heads to the man her husband once was and sent off her daughters to play on their own.

"Daddy," Lainey held up one of the parcels from the store. "Mommy got me new booties."

"That's fine, sweetheart." He patted his little girl on the head. "But daddy's busy watching Mystery Science Theatre 3000. Ally, another root beer." William sat up to see past his daughter's head, scowled like a caveman and slid his hand into his pants like a familiar Chicago women's shoe salesman he knew by reputation.

"Honey," Ally kissed her daughter. "Go play." Ally scowled aggravatedly as she placed the store bags in the chair near the kitchen. While the young girls vanished upstairs, she picked up the remote control to the television and hit the power button with irritated and frustrated emotion.

"Hey!" William took offense.

"That's it!" Ally screamed. "You haven't shaved or come to bed and you've been in front of this TV for three days! I can take being second to your work once in a while, but I will not stand in line for your attention behind a television set! You either tell me what's going on or else I'm going to Boston and leaving you behind! I want my loving husband back in five  
seconds! One, two, three..."

"Ally," William hopped up rubbing his five o-clock stubble. "I can't play this game. I've got to get back to work on the computer." He kissed her angry face to calm her down. "If you can please give me the rest of the week with as little distractions as possible, I'll take you to see John and Elaine and everyone else in Boston for all of next week and we'll leave the girls with my parents. Just the two of us, I promise."

"What?" A bit of confusion entered Ally's scowl.

"I love you so much." He held her a second and kissed her deeply. As he let go, he gazed deeply into her eyes. "I need a shower, don't I?"

"What?…" Ally stood a bit confused and turned watching her husband heading up the stairs in the foyer. A few seconds later, the shower up there started up and then Ally looked back to the aluminum cans and popcorn kernels on the floor of her Collinsport home.

"I never know what's going on around here..." She mumbled to herself as if she was in a dream.

END


End file.
